Saturday, November 28, 2015

Lance Stein brings us this very nice primitive-style Cthulhu idol. I believe this was carved from real stone, but it may be plaster. His gallery has close to a dozen other idols you should take a look at.

Friday, November 27, 2015

The perk magazines in "Fallout 4" feature some covers of interest to Lovecraft fans. I suspect that the "Astoundingly Awesome" pulps foreshadow the DLC content that will be released next year. Based on these two I think it's safe to say at least one will feature an underwater adventure touching on the Mythos. A few others hint at a potential trip to the moon.

Thursday, November 26, 2015

One of the great things about Mythos gaming is that resources for better understanding the period are so readily available. I've gushed before that the single best supplement I've ever purchased was a 1922 edition of of "Winston's Cumulative Loose-Leaf Encyclopedia". For the price of a few game books a period encyclopedia isn't just an invaluable resource of information, but an incredibly immersive prop that players can consult as needed.

I've also taken to trolling through the Internet Archive for public domain books covering subjects of interest. I still dearly love physical books, but since I picked up a Kindle reader I find myself reading even more than before. The sheer variety of contemporary works from the 20s and 30s is stunning, all of it absolutely free and just a click away.

If you're at all interested in period exploration and seafaring I'd strongly recommend downloading "The Log of Bob Bartlett". He's most famous for being the Captain of Peary's ships during multiple attempts at reaching the north pole, but his autobiography also touches on his early experiences as a fisherman and merchant mariner. It's filled with interesting details, including the reasons so many sailors hated bananas and the dangerous flammability of pemmican. The later chapters involving the pole attempts and the wreck of the Karluk, trapped by polar ice as shown in the picture below, are absolutely riveting.

One issue I should mention is the casual racism and sexism of the text. By contemporary standards Capt. Bartlett is a monster, filled with disdain for women and the Inuit. "Problematic" doesn't come close to describing some of the passages he's penned. But just a few paragraphs after describing the north's native population as "barbarous savages" you'll find him expressing an obvious affection and respect for their abilities. It's a very weird dichotomy that pops up again and again in period accounts of expeditions under grueling conditions.

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

The Jade talisman was confiscated from a young deckhand named Jameson at
his admission to the Sussex Lunatic Asylum in 1848. He had been
commissioned on the Clipper ship, Cricket, during its trade circuit to
New Zealand and Australia. Jameson had purchased the amulet from a Maori
merchant who traded in jade. The Merchant had said it would protect him
from the Ika Tane, or Fish Men, that lived in cities off the coast.
Jameson was found a week later aboard the Cricket, near death from
exposure, hiding in a large coil of rope. All other hands had vanished.
Jameson had claimed that the Ika Tane had "calmed the sea with frog
song" and "taken everyone on board under the waves." He claimed that the
amulet had saved his life, and was loath to be separated from it.
Investigators were at a lost to piece together what happened on the
Cricket. There was no sign of violence, or theft from the valuable
cargo. The mysterious amulet passed hands many times, and over the
years, others like it have surfaced all over the world.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

L1b3rtyprime brings us these recreations of the new perk magazines from Fallout 4. If you're a Fallout fan you really have to check out his site. In the two weeks since the game was released he's banged out over a dozen outstanding prop versions of items and weapons from the game.

Saturday, November 21, 2015

If you're an old school gamer you've undoubtedly heard of Tékumel, the game world created by professor M.A.R. Barker.

During the 70s Dungeons and Dragons was developing a milieu that was heavily influenced by Tolkien's European viewpoint. Barker went in a much different direction, creating an incredibly detailed world based on more esoteric Eastern traditions and history with a sprinkling of weird fantasy. To this day it's probably the most fleshed out gaming world ever created.

One of the really fascinating parts of Tékumel is that it features multiple, fully developed languages and scripts. The Tékumel site includes half a dozen fonts based on those writing styles, including the Tsolyáni script pictured here. They're fascinating in and of themselves, but from a prop making perspective they have the advantage of looking appropriately alien and being truly obscure.

Here's a "Quick Brown Fox" map of the reverse Tsolyáni font using all caps.

While the fonts are a real treasure I'd suggest browsing through the rest of the archive as well. You can spend hours immersing yourself in a truly unique world.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

This beautifully done mummified samurai head comes to us from Reliquary Impressions. Quite a few gaffs like this just add a layer of flesh to an off the shelf medical skull. The work here goes way beyond that, with excellent anatomical detail. Take a close look at the interior of the eye sockets, the nose, the lips, and the ears. Those are areas regularly neglected by less skilled artists.

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Robert Altbauer brings us this medieval-style illumination of a historic confrontation with a shoggoth. I love the idea of historians assuming things like this are metaphorical images, while more Mythos-aware researchers know what's really going on. Mr. Altbauer has a number of similar illustrations in his gallery.

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Speaking of which, "Fallout 4" has three Lovecraftian quests I think Mythos fans will enjoy. One of them involves a potentially world-ending artifact from Lovecraft's "Nameless City" in the Arabian Rub'al Khali, the same place Abdul Alhazred learned many of the secrets revealed in the Necronomicon. I know Bethesda won't go there, but it would be amusing to find out the cataclysmic nuclear war was just clearing the field for the return of the Old Ones.

Thursday, November 12, 2015

"Lb3rtyprime" brings us an amazing selection of prop weapons from Fallout. This is one of the best collections I've seen, both in quality and quantity. I expect we'll be seeing a flood of reproductions from "Fallout 4" in the coming weeks.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Joe Broers brings us this outstanding bronze-finish bust of Clark Ashton Smith. In addition to his considerable literary and artistic achievements he was arguably the very first Mythos propmaker. All of us since owe him a debt.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

"Fallout 4" is out today. I don't want to spoil anything, but it has significantly more Lovecraftian content than 3 and much of it is located exactly where Mythos fans would expect. I really hope the rumors that at least one of the DLC packages is heavily Lovecraft-influenced are true.

Update: And the Dunwich Building saga from 3 continues. This is a genuinely disturbing location.

Sunday, November 8, 2015

I'm a big fan of "The Expanse" series of novels. The stories are being adapted into a television series by the SyFy channel, but don't hold that against them. The first two novels are outstanding semi-hard science fiction, and the second features one of the best portrayals of the thought processes of a power armored soldier ever written. Sadly, the overall quality steadily declines as the series progresses.

Concept artist Rob Cavanna was commissioned by a fan to design a costume for Amos Burton, a hard-assed engineer aboard the corvette "Rocinante". That included not only basic clothing and gear, but a selection of custom designed patches. The results are pretty awesome, and you really need to click through to see the high resolution image.

I've loved this kind of detail oriented, lived-in future since "Alien". That's the first media property I can think of where logos and signage were an important part of the production design. Mike Jenkins has recreated dozens of examples over at his blog. Browse around and you'll find designs from the "Alien" series, "Blade Runner", "Firefly", and more.

Friday, November 6, 2015

What self respecting mage would use a simple piece of burning wood to light his way? Rawring Crafts brings us this well done magic torch prop. The clever illumination system uses a light source in the natural wood handle shining up through a selenite crystal.

Lena Karr's boyfriend wanted something special for Halloween- a King in Yellow costume.

Due to my passion for costuming, the aforementioned boyfriend requested I put together a King in Yellow costume for him. Specifically the version of the King in Yellow which appears in the Call of Cthulhu card game. It definitely got a lot of attention, even if very few people were actually aware of the book or the character. I've attached some photos for your perusal.

The results are impressive. Here's a look at the original depiction from the "Call of Cthulhu" card game and Ms. Karr's fantastically well done interpretation.

We bring to you today the skeleton of an unidentified parasitic worm from a private collection. The specimen was originally collected in the Congo during the Du Bois Expedition of 1932-1933. The creature was removed from the intestinal cavity of an unfortunate porter who died during extraction. According to contemporaneous records both the worm and the porter's body underwent extremely rapid putrefaction at the time of death, far beyond anything even the hot, humid climate of the jungle could account for.

The anterior portion of the creature is approximately 2" in diameter and displays quadrilateral symmetry, with four sharpened mandibles projecting from the bony structures of the head. The mouth structure is well preserved and shows signs of an eversible proboscus used in feeding. The body is approximately 26" in length and consists of dozens of papery, cartilaginous segments.

Experts were unable to provide a definitive identification based on the creature's skeleton. It matches no known species, but appears to have a number of structural similarities to the parasitic invertebrates of the genus Pentastoma. Complicating definitive placement in that group is the sheer size of the specimen. Both contemporary and fossil examples of the genus have a maximum length of 6", far shorter than this variety.

Oh, how I love the ickyness of the toothed worms. For this piece I built on the techniques used for last year's Tillinghast specimen. The body is a lightning whelk egg case I picked up on Ebay. The head is a mix of real mouse and mole bones, sculpted Apoxie Sculpt, and some Games Workshop Tyranid bits.

The bones are incredibly delicate, so they had to be reinforced to survive any kind of handling. I accomplished that by flooding them with super glue and then spraying each one down with accelerator to kick the reaction. The result is a surprisingly strong structure formed as the liquid cyanoacrylic fills the pores and voids inside the bone.

The biggest hurdle of the project was producing a consistent surface finish. Getting the multiple materials to match required two coats of ivory, a detail wash of burnt sienna, and a highlight layer of matte white. The final treatment involved dusting down the whole piece with some powdered ochre pigment and then going over it with a dampened Q-tip. That removed the powder from the high spots and allowed the resulting "mud" to flow into the low spots.

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Eyeballs Studio has posted a complete build log for their very nice dwarven axe. A big part of what sells a build like this is the detail work. The bolts on the head and studs along the haft are all crafted from EVA foam.

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What's All This?

Propnomicon focuses on horror and fantasy props of interest to fans of H. P. Lovecraft and players of the "Call of Cthulhu" role playing game. That includes items directly inspired by Lovecraft's writing, DIY information for creating your own works, printable paper props, and source materials related to the 1920's and 30's, the "classic era" of the Cthulhu Mythos. Beyond that, the proprietor of the blog also enjoys pulp action stories, classic supernatural horror, mad science, and the occasional foray into more modern interpretations of the Mythos.

Propnomicon is an Amazon affiliate site. That means any purchases you make from an Amazon link published here result in a small commission. It doesn't cost you anything, and helps defray the cost of the goofy stuff I buy on Amazon.